Waverly is rebuilding from the flood, but the families of some young victims may never return

Paige PflegerWPLN News

Angela Sawyer holds a framed photo featuring her grandson, Kellen Burrow Vaughn. Last August, he was one of 20 people killed in the Humphreys County flood.

Angela Sawyer is sitting in a warmly lit room at the back of her home in Dickson, thinking about her grandson, Kellen Burrow-Vaughn.

The flood washed the toddler out of his mother’s arms at their Waverly apartment complex. It was a disaster sparked in part by the historic 20.73-inch burst of rain that fell in 24 hours. The boy was found days later and came to be one of Humphreys County’s 20 flood victims.

Sawyer says it’s a loss that the child’s siblings and mother are constantly thinking about.

“Brittney said it’s worst at night. I guess that was when she was getting them ready for bed and they were all together,” she explains.

The boy’s mom, Brittney McCord, had gone through a rough flood in Waverly years before. But this time was different. The flood destroyed dozens of businesses and damaged hundreds of homes. So as some families begin to move back in and businesses strive for normalcy, McCord is among families who doesn’t fit into a simple recovery story.

She moved away.

“She won’t even go back to Waverly,” says Sawyer. “She did when we were looking for him, but after that she hadn’t been back down there.”

Kellen’s second birthday would have been a week after the flood. The family still threw a party for him. They observed it by looking back on his life and releasing balloons.

“He loved to color, but he always ended up chewing all the ink pens,” says Sawyer, with a tearful chuckle. “He’d have marker all over his face.”

She says he was a child who never cried or showed anger. He loved to smile, was full of laughs and took a liking to motorcycles.

“Every time he heard one he’d get all excited — ‘motorcycle mama, motorcycles.’ We’d have to let him look at it before we could do anything.”

“He was everything to us. I don’t know what else to say.”

Dealing with loss has also been tough for the family of 7-year-old Lucy Lane Connor. She was swept away after the rush of floodwater tore through the walls of her home.

Her cousin Samantha Tuten says the family is still struggling and that not much has changed.

“It’s kind of like the longer time goes, the more it sinks in that she’s gone,” she says.

The recent holidays didn’t make it any easier. Family members from Florida and Ohio traveled to Tennessee to be together. They didn’t exchange gifts, but instead spent time remembering Lucy, who loved singing, teaching and being in the spotlight.

“We figured if we pretended the holidays weren’t happening it would make it worse,” says Tuten.

While personally dealing with Lucy’s death, the family has been keeping her memory alive. They created an online memorial, and rarely a day goes by without someone sharing a video, a picture, or a favorite story.